Fred Stoeker, Stephen Arterburn, and Kenny Luck Courtesy of Waterbrook Press

There's nothing new about lust. It's been around since the fall of man. Every guy from Adam to your next-door neighbor has dealt with some measure of this internal struggle.

But in 1990, a little invention called the Internet went global and suddenly everything changed. Where catching a glimpse of adult-oriented materials once required significant effort, now it became as simple as a late-night trip to the home computer. No longer did men starving for a sexual fantasy have to sneak out of the convenience store with a dirty magazine or scurry in and out of an adult video shop.

Almost overnight, pornography turned into a $12 billion industry. That's bigger than the nfl, the nba, and Major League Baseball combined. Even worse, the porn culture has increasingly become an accepted part of the mainstream. Some porn stars have even run for political office.

"Nobody was prepared for this kind of thing," says author and speaker Stephen Arterburn. "It was so subtle and so many guys got into it because they were curious. So one time they clicked, and then that site started marketing to them all the other sites. Now every day they've got 10 or 20 sites asking them to visit. It's like an alcoholic walking to work and every five minutes a guy steps out with a bottle of vodka and says, 'Here—want a drink?' That's pretty hard to resist."

Arterburn, the founder of the New Life Clinics, doesn't claim to be a prophet, but when he wrote the book Addicted to Love (since updated and re-released as When You Love Too Much) back in 1984, he provided insight into an issue two decades ahead of its time. It was another 14 years, in 1998, before freelance writer Fred Stoeker was inspired to write a similar book on the topic of sexual addiction. He enlisted the help of former Focus on the Family editor Mike Yorkey to tweak the manuscript.

WaterBrook Press jumped on the concept, but first brought Arterburn onboard to coauthor what was released in 2000 as Every Man's Battle. Much of the book is based on Stoeker's personal struggle with sexual immorality.

"God's plan is to set sinners free and then use them to teach others," Stoeker says. "God has been using me in just that way in the series, and I'm perfectly happy to open my dirty laundry to the world if He'll be glorified in the process."

	" Having sexual integrity doesn't just mean not crawling into bed with someone who isn't your husband," says Shannon Ethridge, who has written books for the female side of the series.

Every Man's Felt Need
At first sales were modest, with roughly 1,000 books sold each month. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Every Man's Battle started to fly off the shelves.

"Six months into it pastors started buying the books by the box," Arterburn says. "That's when all of us realized that Internet pornography had become such a problem, and that churches and pastors weren't ignoring it, they just didn't know what to do about it. That's when I felt like this [book] was going to change so much. I got really excited."

The Every Man series has since sold over 10 million copies. Workbooks have been released for all 10 books, and devotionals are soon to follow. Tyndale House has even released Every Man's Bible. Kenny Luck, founder and president of Every Man Ministries, says that it's the book series' unique approach that has resonated with men.

"When there's an agent of openness like Every Man's Battle that normalizes the struggle and adds grace and truth to it, you're going to have an explosion," Luck says. "All we did in the series was make men feel normal so they didn't feel isolated."

	Shannon Ethridge Courtesy of Waterbrook Press

"The success of the series indicates that men have always wanted to rise up and flee their immorality," Stoeker adds. "They just didn't know what that looked like in practice. The series teaches exactly what fleeing looks like in real life."

Luck, who also serves as the men's pastor at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in southern California, was brought in to write the third book, Every Man, God's Man, which moves the series beyond sexual issues and into the realm of spiritual formation. The expansion of the series has continued with such titles as Every Man's Marriage and Preparing Your Son for Every Man's Battle.

Extending the battle lines
In 2003, the Every Man movement crossed gender lines when Arterburn called on women's ministry leader Shannon Ethridge to help him write Every Woman's Battle. That insightful move led to the release of multiple books for women and teenage girls. The books written for the female struggle have surprisingly produced the greatest sales successes to date.

"Many women believe that Prince Charming is going to come along and it's going to be a fairy tale," Arterburn says. "And then they get married and look at what they've got and it's a disappointment. From there, they start doing things like Internet chat rooms. And now women are into pornography, too. That problem has grown."

Ethridge knows all too well the battle women face with their sexuality. She was sexually abused as a pre-teen and raped at the age of 18. Until her marriage, she lived with gross misconceptions about relationships and sex. Now a writer, speaker, and lay counselor, Ethridge hopes to bust the dangerous myths that so many women believe.

"I want to teach women that having sexual integrity doesn't just mean not crawling into bed with someone who isn't your husband," she says. "Women have to guard not just their bodies, but their minds, hearts, and spirits."

The Every Man phenomenon doesn't appear to be fading anytime soon. There's a traveling workshop that's impacting churches all across the nation and the existing books are starting to make significant movement into the mainstream. Barnes & Noble stores recently began placing Every Man floor displays in prominent locations.

Now book buyers can find a spin-off series (created by Luck) entitled God's Man. Arterburn hopes that readers will continue moving beyond the base issues that launched Every Man's Battle and start working toward a deeper, more spiritually rooted relationship with God.

"Whatever you're struggling with, use that as an excuse to transform everything in your life—whether it's a weight problem or alcohol or sexual addiction," Arterburn says. "The bigger theme is clearing up these kinds of things so that you can become God's man or God's woman."

Chad Bonham is a freelance writer, author, and independent television producer from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where he resides with wife, Amy, and 3-year-old son Lance.

	What did you think of this story?
	Please to give us your feedback.

Read more from 'Build Your Faith'

Home  |  People of Faith  |  Stories of Hope  |  Today's Culture
Build Your Faith  |  Laughing Matters  |  Archives  |  Contact Us

				Try Today's Christian Woman Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. If you decide you want to keep Today's Christian Woman coming, honor your invoice for just $17.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Today's Christian Woman as a gift Order a gift subscription!

FREE Newsletter Subscribe to the Today's Christian Newsletter    RSS Feed   RSS Help